Author Archives: Christopher McConnell

This month’s encore presentation in our Kentucky Live! series, taking place in Morgantown Public Library, Kentucky on October 25, 2012, focused on the history of neighboring Butler County published in the Images of America series in September by Arcadia Press. The speakers were Roger Givens and Nancy Richey, co-authors of the book in the series.

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Dr. Patrick Pranke was our speaker for Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names Series on October 18, 2012 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Bowling Green, KY. He spoke about “Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism.”

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Florencia Mallon, Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, spoke in WKU Libraries’ Far Away Places Series at Barnes & Noble on the evening of September 20, 2012. She read from her book, discussed it in the context of Chilean history, and answered questions from an overflow crowd. Mallon signed copies of her book following her presentation.

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WKU Libraries featured Kirby Gann for the 2012/13 season of Kentucky Live!. Gann talked about his new book Ghosting to a diverse university and community audience. The talk concluded with a book signing by the author.

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Virginia Willis, Brian Coutts, and Maggie Green

Kentucky native Maggie Green and Georgia native Virginia Willis headlined the 9:00 a.m. session at this year’s Bookfest.

The Kentucky Fresh Cookbook

Maggie Green, Brian Coutts

Green is the owner of The Green Apron Company, a Northern Kentucky consulting firm specializing in culinary nutrition and cookbook development.  Her newest book, now into its second printing, The Kentucky Fresh Cookbook, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2011.  She talked about organizing the more than 200 recipes by season, incorporating Kentucky-grown and produced food with lots of tips on buying everything from produce to wine and even the pros and cons of organic foods. In addition to writing her own cookbook she’s been working for the “Joy of Cooking Kitchen” since 2000 and served on the editorial staff for the 75^th Anniversary edition and answers email for their web site.  She’s recently launched a cookbook “camp” for would be authors. She writes a wonderful blog at:

http://www.greenapron.com/blog where she interviews famous cookbook authors.

Virginia Willis

Bon Appetit, Y'all

Basic to Brilliant Y'all

Virginia Willis, is a native of Evans, Georgia where she gained her love of cooking from her grandmother.

She spent three years in France and is a graduate of L’Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne.  Stateside she’s worked as TV Kitchen Director for Bobby Flay and later for Martha Stewart

and was the executive producer for the Discovery Channel’s Epicurious.  Moving back to Atlanta she wrote her first cookbook  Bon Appétit Y’All in 2008 followed in 2011 by Basic to Brilliant Y’All both of which have been nominated for best cookbook awards.  Virginia talked about taking 150 refined southern recipes with suggestions on how to dress them up for company.  Virginia spoke about her March trip to the Paris cookbook fair where she demonstrated her “shrimp and grits” and about a visit to the White House where chefs from around the country were invited to promote First Lady Michelle Obama’s child nutrition initiatives.  She was recently named a contributing editor of Southern Living. She teaches cooking classes around the country and shares some great recipes at: http://www.virginiawillis.wordpress.com/

DLPS Department Head Brian Coutts moderated the session.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 26th, in Helm 5 from 10:00-11:00am. Brian Coutts, Head of the Department of Library Public Services will present his best reference books of 2011. He has been choosing the Best Reference Books for the past 26 years. Among some of the chosen titles are: American Menswear, Atlas of the Great Plains, The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, and the Oxford Companion to Beer. Please come and join us for the presentation followed by a discussion session and refreshments.

The last of the 12th series of “Far Away Places” talks featured Dr. Michael Trapasso, who has been teaching Geography at WKU since 1980. He shared his research experience in South Africa where he ventured into several of its natural parks and had numerous encounters with exotic and sometimes dangerous animals. The talk happened on Thursday, April 12 at Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Bowling Green, Kentucky. “Far Away Places” talk series are organized by WKU Libraries.

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This month’s “Kentucky Live!” series,  sponsored by  WKU Libraries and Barnes & Noble Booksellers, featured Amy Preske, PR and Events Manager of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Franklin County, Kentucky. She shared the history of the nation’s oldest continuously operating distillery through a video and slides. She also brought bourbon candies for tasting and a gift basket of Buffalo Trace products as a door prize. The lucky winner was Rosemary Meszaros, Professor and Coordinator of WKU Libraries’ Government Documents.

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Christopher McConnell is a student assistant for the Department of Library Public Services. He lived for 5 years in Chile, South America. Over those five years, he lived in Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and Reñaca. Before moving back to the U.S. in June 2006 he crawled through mining channels hundreds of feet under the ocean in the south of Chile, walked through the Atacama desert and Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon)  and achieved many honors such as class best friend and honors in Philosophy. While in Chile, he also toured the country playing rugby. He embarked on his adventure to Chile in order to spend more time with his family (on his mother’s side) in Chile, and strive for a better education. His mother enrolled him in the Mackay School (a Britannic Bi-lingual All Boys Private School). He achieved the National Society for High School Scholars where he shook hands with Claes Nobel and was a recipient of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. He is majoring in Accounting and Finance with a certification in Real Estate. At Western, he works in Helm-Cravens Library designing the Kentucky Live! & Far Away Places posters, flyers and post cards. His desires in life are to become an entrepreneur who will provide jobs, housing, products and services to world as a whole.

He will be speaking about his adventure in Chile on February 7^th, 2012 at 10:00am in Helm 100.